Hi, new guy here

[mmoore5325]

My name is Mike, friends call me Mac from back in the day.  I am tattoo free, always decided I would wait til I truly know something I want.  Well, I have finally decided on a few different things I want, and I think I want all of them.  I know it won't happen over night, but I came to this forum for answers to questions/advice.  I am from WV and in my 30s and have been through hell and back in my life, which I am sure everyone has probably been through their own personal hell.  But I just want to say hello, and hopefully you experienced tattoo receivers and artists can help me on my path to getting some art done.  

 

Well the guidelines told me to post my question here, so I will just go ahead and ask.  I have some ideas of a couple things i want done.  One is a portrait of my dog of all dogs, the love of my life, my kid.  There are quite a few tattoo artists around here, and I see their work, and its not bad, but for a portrait, something I want done special, versus the other ones that I still want done perfectly, but not as perfect as the portrait of my best friend ever.  Should I look into going out of state for this?  Take a road trip somewhere for a renowned tattoo artist that does things like this?  And if so, I live in WV.  Where on the east coast would be somewhere to look into something like that?  And it would be a calf tattoo, so in a large ballpark range, how much would something like that cost? 

2nd question, the other ones, I was thinking of some small nature scene, kind of a hilltop, a tree, and a rose, with a couple words.  Once again, in WV, i just get nervous because I am unsure how truly great people are at their profession around here actually are, and its basically the same question again, but should I just go around and hunt for tattoo artists that can do things like that around here?  Look at portfolios?  And if I come up with an idea for them to run with, does that usually cost a decent chunk of change for the concept art?  The portrait I mentioned above I will have a photo.  But the 2nd one I am talking about now is more conceptual.  How much would I be looking to spend, once again, ballpark range, for them to draw it up to see if I like it?  And if I don't quite like it, do I have to pay them again to draw a new one or change it up a little?  I am completely unaware how the world of inking works and any explanation to any of this would be extremely grateful.  Especially the part about whether I should go out of state for tattoos I want extremely detailed, how much more expensive they would be, and some of the more renowned ones I should look to on the east coast.

 

Thanks again for all your help.

Mac.

Edited August 28, 2017 by mmoore5325
Questions

[Hel7]

Ok, can't speak for America here since I'm European, anyways here we have thousands of tattoo artists and many of them are like "specialized" in some kinds of tattoos. One of my favourite tattoo artist is a girl who loves drawing dogs, she has her dog tattooed all over her arm and it's better than a photography!

I know that for example other artists maybe aren't used in tattoing animals idk, it's better to ask before if they're into it even if I had for example my Japanese (video-game style) "anime" tattoos made by a girl who had never drawn any manga or anime before and she did an extremely great job. But it's better to go to a place in which you find yourself comfortable even for what concerns the artist's experience!

Don't look for the costs, even if you spend 20 or 30 € (or $ ok, 1€ is 1$ as of 2017 so it's the same ahah) more it's fine, it's something you will have forever so you want it to be great and 20 dollars more won't give you problems. 

On the other hand, you're talking about landscapes and such so that's a more "easy" thing to do. Faces, Japanese-style, Maori-style and so on are more specialistic things. All the tattoo artists I know are astonishingly great drawers and designers and they can draw almost everything. Ok, all of them of course love something and hate something else, but if you talk about general things (landscapes, minimalistic designs, arrows, writings-phrases of any kinds and so on) I think that as long as you're good and comfortable in a studio and you have seen on Facebook or such (Instagram idk, I'm a little bit old style so I don't have whatsapp instagram etc. but I know that many tattoo artists nowadays work with all those new social networks) all the things they did, they will do great on you too!

I recognize that you Americans have a different world rather than us Europeans who are way more conservative, like, we don't go even to other cities or provinces usually, here in San Marino there are only two studios in the whole nation and many Sammarinese don't even go to Italy and stick with those two.. but I think that in the States you have twice the artists we have and you'll find your favourite artists near where you live. I never asked for the price, to me it's not polite, I mean.. I pay the artist for his talent and his time and some € more or less can't influence my decisions..

[Hogrider]

It's not in the guidelines, but talking money is a no no.

There are some great artists in the DC area, just be really careful who you get. Doing portraits is really hard and I don't see very many good ones. 

[SStu]

http://unkindnessart.com/artists/

[mmoore5325]

As for money, I wasn't looking for exact prices.  Just a range of what I should be looking to spend.  Like, in the hundreds or maybe thousand+?   Like I said, I'm new to all this.  But I know what I want now and am excited as hell to get it.  The kind of hilltop/1 tree/possibly sunset if I get color scene with a rose and a couple words is the more immediate one.  The portrait of the dog is the one I was thinking I would be having to travel for, which was why I was asking if there were any notable artists that stand out in the world of tattooing on the east coast for something like that.  And as for speaking prices, I wasn't looking to offend anyone, I just don't know how much tattoos cost.  I would be willing to pay anything for the one I want.  I just want to know whether I should be looking to save up for it or if its potentially affordable for me now.  And do tattoo artists generally charge for concept art?

Edited August 29, 2017 by mmoore5325

[Hel7]

yeah, I know.. to me it's unrespectful to talk about money with tattoo artists in primis, 'cos it's like, i'm "buying" their talent, their artistry, not only materials and time.. so I never had to ask for a price until after the work was done.. anyways the range it's always the same, nothing unaffordable (otherwise.. nowadays everyone has tattoos..).. 

there are of course some tattoo artists (we have some here in northern italy, even one with some records in the guinness book..) that maybe make you wait for 6 months and charge you like you're buying a new car for a 3cmx3 triangle.. but I have found only like, they're 1 over 20 tattoo artists.. of course in every job there are those not fair and honest and such.. 

ask them for an idea (of course since the tattoo isn't perfectly in their mind as of colors dimensions and so on they can't give you the exact price) but it won't be definitely something high.. and more or less they have the same prices, I have an artist who's been in this for 30 years who makes us pay almost nothing and other younger artists who have higher prices but in the thousands I never heard anyone maybe for an entire sleeve idk ahah.. for 6 or 7 sessions..